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Topic: Custom Clones - Clean or Dirty? (Read 1277 times)

This is a two part question for all of you customizers and non-customizers alike.

a) When you see (or make) custom Clones, do you prefer clean ones or battle worn, dirty armor ones?

b) Is there such a thing as too much battle wear or weathering? Can it be overdone?

a) Me personally, I prefer looking at and making battle worn, dragged through the mud, haven't seen a refresher in weeks Clones. It just adds to the level of "realism" (if that's even possible, given that they are not real in any way, shape, or form). I just think it makes a figure look 10x better - if not more - to add some wash and weathering to it.

b) This is a tuff question to answer. I just did a quick wash on one of my #6 Clones as a "test" and I'm wondering if it's not too much. It looks like he's been in battle for weeks without cleaning his armor, and on the one hand I like it. But on the other hand, it almost looks like I tried to paint the armor a Gray color, and just did a bad job of it. I'll post a pic later tonight if I can, if not tomorrow.

Personally I like dirty clones. In the middle of a war it is much more realistic. SW made the "used universe" look famous. If you look around here nothing stays that clean for long, take a favorite pair of jeans for instance, they get really worn down after wearing them for awhile.

I think it can be over done. It depends on the situation, if they are trapped behind enemy lines for weeks without being able to clean themselves, I can imagine it getting pretty dirty, but I think you'd still see some white. You also have to realize that the dirt needs to be transfered in scale too, which isn't always an easy task. I have definitely seen clones overdone, but determining exactly what is overdone as opposed to what is just dirty, isn't easy, for me anyways.

Well, I've seen them overdone some and sometimes not at all. I think it depends on the situation they are supposed to be in.

For example, in the OT, the only really dirty ones you see are the ones on Tatooine. They're in a crappy environment, so they get dirty easily. The others you seem to see are fresh off of Star Destroyers, there's not a major war going on like in the Clone Wars, etc. So they are usually much more clean. Another theory could be in the OT era, the clone/stormtrooper armor had been upgraded as well, therefore it doesn't chip as much.

I do agree with SLC that clones seem to look great with some weathering, but remember that you can overdo it if you're not careful.

while we're on the subject, does anyone know how to make weathering look really well on like mandalorian armour? I'm trying to see how I can weather my Jatser Mereel.

One thing I've done on ships that I've customized is get an old paint brush, preferably the cheap Walmart kind. I'll dab it in silver and then wipe of most of the excess paint on a towel or rag. Then I'll lightly brush it over the surface. This works pretty well for me. For vehicles I've done it in both silver and with black for a pretty good look. However, I haven't tried this on figures before.

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"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote." Ben franklin

while we're on the subject, does anyone know how to make weathering look really well on like mandalorian armour? I'm trying to see how I can weather my Jatser Mereel.

One thing I've done on ships that I've customized is get an old paint brush, preferably the cheap Walmart kind. I'll dab it in silver and then wipe of most of the excess paint on a towel or rag. Then I'll lightly brush it over the surface. This works pretty well for me. For vehicles I've done it in both silver and with black for a pretty good look. However, I haven't tried this on figures before.

a) When you see (or make) custom Clones, do you prefer clean ones or battle worn, dirty armor ones?

I think I'm in the minority (at least here), but I prefer my clones to be "clean." I know that it might not be as realistic, but I think they match the hasbro figures better. As CHEWIE said, it really depends on the situation. For my custom squad, I wanted them to be clean so that they wouldn't look weird next to all of my basic figures. Of course, sometimes you just need to dirty up the clones a bit, so I dirtied up my versions of the Shocktrooper and 501st clones. Still, in general, I like "clean" clones.I would prefer if hasbro ditched their pathetic attempts at "weathering" their clones because they end up looking horrible. Keep giving us clean figures and let us dirty them up if we want.

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b) Is there such a thing as too much battle wear or weathering? Can it be overdone?

I definitely think that weathering can be overdone. When I weather, I tend to do a bit more than I think is necessary because I just get carried away. As long as the figure doesn't look ridiculous next to hasbro's version, then I am alright with it. I know it's weird to use hasbro as the standard since a lot of time, their version is crappier than ours, however I like to have a consistent theme to my collection, so I guess I have to go by the lowest common denominator After thinking about it a little more, I'm torn on this too. I think that some customs that are "accurately" weathered look really good and it is good that they were weathered to that degree, but then again if you put it next to hasbro's version, it blows hasbro's version away (which is good and bad, in my opinion).

As for your washed clone, jokabofe, I think it looks pretty good. It's a bit more than I would have done, but it doesn't look that out of place.

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The scariest thing that I've ever seen,Is the terrible AT-AT walking machine.It's as big as a house on walking legs,and whatever it steps on it crushes like eggs.

while we're on the subject, does anyone know how to make weathering look really well on like mandalorian armour? I'm trying to see how I can weather my Jatser Mereel.

One thing I've done on ships that I've customized is get an old paint brush, preferably the cheap Walmart kind. I'll dab it in silver and then wipe of most of the excess paint on a towel or rag. Then I'll lightly brush it over the surface. This works pretty well for me. For vehicles I've done it in both silver and with black for a pretty good look. However, I haven't tried this on figures before.

I prefer clean. But some of the best clone customs were that because of the weathering."SOMETIMES LESS IS MORE!!" That being said, i like the ones with a little weathering as opposed to those full of black paint marks.Like chewie mentioned some browns added for dirt make it better. Not just black grime.

I agree with Gregorbian. I like clean because its more Hasbro like. Besides, they look better clean when you have them lined up for review by the Emporer. I think I've seen too many dirty ones and that aspect has kind of left me cold. It doesn't stear the same emotions as a nice new clean figure does. Clean has become more unique and interesting to me now.